As is generally well known in the railway industry, the brake hoses of adjacently disposed railway cars are joined together in an air tight manner by glad hands for the purpose of supplying compressed air to the brake system.
Prior to the conception and development of the present invention, as is equally well known in the railway industry, the vertical elevation of these brake hoses after being joined together at the gland hands is prone to misalignments thereby allowing the brake hoses to hang down freely towards the ground. Currently, it has been determined that a number of railroads are experiencing difficulty in maintaining these brake hoses together at least partially due to aging and stretching of the elastomer straps generally used for suspending the glad hand joint from the coupler of the railway vehicle as taught, for example, by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,500 to Campbell.
Brake hose supports of a cable type taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,894 to Fremund and U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,564 to Nadherny have not adequately resolved maintenance difficulties.
Should a brake hose become accidentally uncoupled, cut and/or broken for any reason this will result in the brakes being applied to the train. This is obviously an undesirable and, most likely, costly condition, but one which is necessary for the safety of the workers and equipment. The connection between these brake hoses can be broken or the brake hoses themselves may be broken and/or slashed, for example, if they catch on, or are struck by, something sharp that is both tall enough and laying between the rails.